The concept of branches began as a response to a way of thinking about the structure of music. Concepts such as the sentence and the period are treated by some as the principal ways to approach writing and analyzing a piece. The different approach I offer is thinking of music exploring outwards, returning, and branching into new directions. In this piece, the music is constantly tracing and re-tracing new paths. It is as if you are practicing a piece, but you make a mistake, so you go back and try again hopefully fixing that mistake. These types of branches occur in many areas of our lives including the way roads are built, the evolution of species, and parts of our anatomy. We often behave in this way too when we come across dead ends: we go back and try another path.

The accompanying video, made with the help of artist Ling DeBellis, depicts the unfolding structure of the piece in real time.

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